Take a longer, more lasery look at Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in motion
Everyone needs a tiny robot friend.
While Lucasfilm may object to wanton limb-chopping, they can't stop Respawn from giving us a big slice of the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order video today. A little under half an hour long (double shown publicly at E3), we get to see a little Uncharted-ish clambering across an AT-AT walker, some mech combat, and a lot of lightsaber stuff. We also get some extended dialogue, a peek at the Metroid Prime-ish automap system, and a look at the kinds of upgrades you'll be able bolt onto the hero's adorable little robo-buddy. Give it a gander below.
I can't deny that Fallen Empire is a gorgeous-looking game, even if a dank swamp is a poor first impression, environment-wise. It has all the glossy sheen you'd expect of a AAA project backed by EA, although the pacing feels a little pedestrian. While the climbing is obviously playing homage to Uncharted, there's no panicky Nathan Drake energy. Perhaps the hero needs to be a little less confident in order to sell the peril of clambering up the side of a moving mech? We do at least get to see that dismemberment does happen so long as the target isn't human, with some alien bug-monsters sliced clean in two.
Respawn have clearly been looking to other swordfighting games too. While not a perfect match, there's a bit of Sekiro's style to the combat. Enemies have a stamina bar that is depleted when they block or get beat around by your Force powers, and it's not until it's drained that you can take a chunk of out their health bar. While basic troopers tend to go down in just a couple swings, the electro-staff troopers behave a lot like Sekiro's mini-bosses. In the accompanying developer blog post, director Stig Asmussen confirms the Souls series is an inspiration, along with Metroid and Casltevania.
It's an interesting situation. As a kid, I would have gone mad with glee if I saw a Star Wars game like this. Now for all its Hollywood-imitating glitz I'm largely nonplussed. Here's hoping that the final game is more than a pretty collection of familiar-looking elements. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order launches on November 15th, and will be Origin-exclusive.